Regulators mull reversing $462M increase in PG&E fire fines

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — California power regulators are weighing a recommendation to back off plans to fine Pacific Gas and Electric an additional $462 million for igniting a series of Northern California 2018 deadly wildfires rather than risk that the harsher punishment will scuttle the utility's plan to emerge from bankruptcy protection.

The state's Public Utilities Commission are mulling whether to pare the penalties facing PG&E as the result of a proposed revision floated by one of agency's five commissioners, Clifford Rechtschaffen. The document was made public Monday.

In another development, PG&E disclosed it took steps to ensure it will not have to tap into a $13.5 billion fund set up for wildfire victims to pay a separate $4 million fine that will be imposed for the company's guilty plea to 84 felony counts of involuntary manslaughter stemming from a 2018 inferno triggered by its outdated electrical grid. Last week, PG&E disclosed its bankruptcy plan required that financial penalties for the crimes would come from the victims' fund.

Now that it has avoided that potential public relations challenge, PG&E is trying to clear another hurdle that could block its attempt to emerge from one of the most complex bankruptcy cases in U.S. history by June 30.

In documents made public Monday, Rechtschaffen made a case for the public utilities commission to reverse a decision issued last month requiring PG&E to pay a $2.1 billion fine for neglecting the maintenance of equipment blamed for causing the wildfires that killed nearly 130 people and destroyed thousands of homes in Butte County, Sonoma County and other parts of the utility's sprawling service territory during 2017 and 2018.

The proposed penalty added $462 million to a roughly $1.7 billion settlement that PG&E negotiated with...